Lumber company Pro-Build Holdings Inc., which has about 500 locations and 17,000 employees nationwide, has chosen Denver for its headquarters.
Pro-Build was ranked No. 37 by Forbes among the largest private companies in 2006. It moved into temporary space at the Denver Tech Center in March and now has roughly 20 employees there.
The company plans to move into permanent space in July and grow to about 60 employees at the headquarters within a few months. The company has about 15,000 square feet at 7595 Technology Way, formerly an Oracle building.
Pro-Build is also considering Denver for a data center, which would add more jobs.
“We are increasingly becoming a headquarters town,” said Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. executive vice president Tom Clark. “Not the big Fortune 50 companies, but we continue to add these kinds of firms in the region.”
Pro-Build’s incentive package included training and performance amenities, Clark said. Its divisions include Littleton-based Home Lumber Co., which has about 800 employees.
Pro-Build is the product of a series of acquisitions by Fidelity Capital, which in 1997 acquired the Strober Organization, a building-materials supplier with headquarters in South Plainfield, N.J. Pro- Build was formed in 2006 as a Fidelity Capital holding company, which bought building-materials dealer Lanoga Corp. in Redmond, Wash., and Hope Lumber.
“The homebuilders have consolidated,” said Pro-Build chief executive Paul Hylbert. “The large homebuilders want to do business with folks that can supply all of their locations.”
Pro-Build, whose pro-forma annual revenues totaled nearly $6 billion in 2006, describes itself as the nation’s largest pro dealer – a lumberyard operation serving professional contractors.
The company, looking for a central headquarters location, chose Denver over Dallas and Chicago because of Denver International Airport. Metro Denver also is an attractive place to live, Hylbert said.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-954-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com.
